MPs ask for more funding to police canine unit 

The Defence and Internal Affairs committee of parliament has recommended a Shs 4.9bn budget funding towards the police
canine unit as a measure to curb crime.

The budget aims to procure 750 sniffer dogs under the police canine unit and will be spread out at various police stations countrywide. Rosemary Nyakikongoro, the committee chairperson, said recently after presenting the report on the 2023/2024 National Budget Framework Paper before the parliament’s Budget committee.

“We have a shortage of sniffer dogs yet they are doing a great job wherever they are deployed. So, the police plan to procure more of these dogs to every corner of the country and reduce the burden of time and distance. This budget also includes looking after the dogs and this involves feeding, washing, treatment and acaricides. It is not these common dogs,” she said.

The police canine unit is a specialized entity that detects and investigates crime using track dogs. The unit also gives support functions to the antinarcotics department by providing narcotics-detection dogs at Entebbe international airport and other border points and explosive-detection dogs to the Directorate of Counter Terrorism. In the annual police report of 2021-2022, a total of 10,935 incidents involving tracking dogs were carried out. Of these, 8,154 arrests were made, of whom 5,265 were adults.

Meanwhile, canine evidence was used against 2,931 persons taken to court out of whom 1,155 persons were convicted. A total of 3,750 exhibits were recovered through the use of the tracking dogs to support investigations.

According to Deputy Inspector General of Government Geoffrey Tumusiime Katsigazi, the canine unit can do more to curb crime if the public has easy access to the tracking dogs.

“It is one of our best units in the force because its operations are accurate. So, we need to extend it further to reach out to every community,” he said. “We hope we can get bigger funding because it will result in better results in curbing crime countrywide.”

FRED ENANGA WARNS

Meanwhile, during the weekly police press briefing on March 27, Fred Enanga, the police spokesperson, noted that the expansion of the canine unit is in public interest.

“It [canine unit] is one of the units that are very successful in the policing of crime. The reports we are getting are very encouraging countrywide. It is the public that mostly reaches out to us in cases of crime or crime detection. So, we need to bring our services closer to the people because the canine unit has proven itself to be able to quickly solve complex criminal scenes without much investigations,” he said.

He also emphasized that the services of sniffer dogs are free.

“I have taken note that there are some police officers who charge people for services of our dogs. That is wrong and any of our officers who solicits money should be reported to higher police authorities for action. We don’t condone corruption and extortion,” he said.

Enanga further noted that in the latest canine unit breakthrough, a sniffer dog helped track down four suspects to a shrine in Mende, Wakiso after the murder of 25-year-old Joyce Gutta-bingi, who was raped and strangled to death.

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